ON THIS day 25 years ago: Twenty-three starving Hongkong seamen of the Panamanian freighter Sun Route staged a mutiny, injuring the ship's master and his chief officer in Zamboanga, southern Philippines.
The ship's crew, all Chinese and engaged in Hongkong, had been stranded in the Philippines since November 1967 as the Sun Route was involved in court proceedings for alleged non-payment of customs duties.
An AFP report, quoting the Philippine press, said the seamen had been ''hungry and restless'' since March 21 when their food supply was cut off by the ship's agent in Manila.
The ship was abandoned by its owner, the Moksen Shipping Company of Hongkong, in November 1967, and later re-sold to a Panamanian firm with offices in Manila.
Filipino customs authorities had ordered them to return to Hongkong when the mutiny happened.
It was learned the crew had alleged non-payment of wages and food allowance, and had sought assistance for a settlement in Hongkong.A MAN who lured a little mute girl and 12 other young girls to hillsides in Shamshuipo to ''see the pretty goldfish'' and then attacked them sexually, was sentenced to life imprisonment.